AIGUA ÉS VIDACountry of originSpainName of the proposed actionWho pays is the one who rules: civil obedience actionName of the organizatio n , group or network proposing the actionAigua és vida (Water is Life, in Catalan)Organization’s websitehttp://aiguaesvida.wordpress.com/

Description and motive for the action

Barcelona citizens find themselves utterly defenseless before a public andbasic service, as may be Water. Hence, and backed up by a judgment datedOctober 2010, “the price that the Societat General d’Aigües de Barcelona,AGBAR (the name of the public company offering watering service inBarcelona) charges for the service rendered to the citizens of Barcelona isillegal”, as “there is no tender agreement signed”. It adds that “we arefacing a null tender due to the lack of all eligible previous procedures”,which implies “relevant material repercussions, as the management of thewater supply service in the city of Barcelona and the performance of SGAB(currently AGBAR) in its quality of permit holder of said service areconsidered unlawful”. Thus, the price of the bill referring to the amountcharged to the citizens of Barcelona for the service rendered “is unlawful”and so, these installments must be cancelled, as well as the VAT thereof.This action aims to be an example for other cities in the world to take thesame actions one by one, following the experience in Barcelona. We arefacing a situation of privatization of the public water supply and sanitationservices, especially in Greece, Portugal and Italy, despite the examples ofsuccessful public services, such as the one in the Netherlands.This action seeks to open a first door for all active citizens in the defense ofwater and basic related services outside the logic of the market. The ACT!will be the engine to build alternatives and to resist to privatization, as wellas to build water and sanitation public services with social participation andunder social control, where the real runners and controllers of this publicservice were the public.Given this alarming situation it has been a year since the Platform Aigua ésVida started denouncing the deregulation of water, the impunity and thelack of control over AGBAR’s actions and the social plundering thatreification of water means to all citizens.We must also remember the devastating impact that AGBAR (subsidiary ofthe French multinational SUEZ) provoked to the Southern countries and thestrong social opposition upon its arrival to Latin America: expulsion fromBuenos Aires, Santa Fe province, Cordoba city in Argentina, from La Paz –High Bolivia and East Maldonado in Uruguay. Not to forget the water war inCochabamba (Bolivia) and the constitutional processes in Uruguay, Ecuadorand Bolivia, where the Human Right to water linked to a public andparticipative management is recognized. Further information on this failurein Latin America can be found in the work “Drowning: Rising and fall ofmultinational companies in South America” (original title –Spanish-: “Con elagua al cuello: Ascenso y Caída de las multinacionales en sudamérica”)(http://admin.isf.es/UserFiles/File/catalunya/publicaciones/castellano/ESFeres3def_conISBN_web.pdf).On the other hand, we must remember the serious impact of wateringmultinational companies in Africa (Mali, South Africa, Gambia, Tanzania,Malawi or Ghana) and Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia or Philippines). The work“Mirage on the Water” (original title –Spanish-: “Espejismo en el agua”) is atyour disposal at:(http://www.blueplanetproject.net/espanol/documents/Espejismo_en_el_agua.pdf).All conflicts within the Spanish territory can be found in the work “Water, aslife, is not a good merchandise” (original title: El agua como la vida, no esuna mercancía) (http://www.catalunya.isf.es/menu_publicaciones/El-aguacomo-la-vida-no-es-una-mercancia.pdf), as well as a summary of allstruggles around Europe (Constitutional referendum in Italy, Berlinreferendum, the turning back to local administration of water in Paris, thecampaign against its privatization in Portugal or the change into wateringsocial management in Greece).Given the serious impacts that privatization of watering public services isimplying worldwide, both at the North and at the South, and the situationthat we are living in Catalonia, we decided to focus in one of the mainwatering multinationals, this is AGBAR-SUEZ, in order to achieve a changingaction. Therefore, we propose to start a campaign relying on therefusal of paying the unlawful charge to AGBAR. Due to theaforementioned judgment, we call it “civil obedience” and not “civildisobedience”.All 8.000€ derived from ACT!2012 would be dedicated to three basicactivities:1. Process map of the alternative charging of the fee2. Diffusion campaign and information on the proposal3. Legal adviceSpecific r esult expected from the actionRecovery of public services, which politicians assigned to the private marketunlawfully and without appearing in any election program, in order to bringthem back to the citizenship.Bringing back to public local management the watering service inBarcelona.Arising to debate the need of having watering and sanitary service managedin full by the public system.Kind of actionCivil disobedienceCitizenship participationAs it has been introduced, citizenship is the main actor. Although there is aquite important activity on popular education, collective thinking andcitizenship empowering, there is a need for citizens to step forward andparticipate in the “civil obedience campaign”, this is, paying the feedirectly to the Ajuntament de Barcelona instead of paying it toAGBAR.Term / AgendaAutumn 2012Organizations that could become collaboratorsLocal, social, syndical, ecologic, supportive or academic institutions andsocial movements. The platform of Aigua és Vida is already a multi-sectorand multidisciplinary platform.In an international level, it is closely coordinated with multi-sector networksas Reclaiming Public Water, Water Justice Movement, European WateringNetwork, Red Agua Pública, Red Vida.